Catalonia faces obstacles to its independence dreams

Spain

Catalonia's bid for independence continues to dominate headlines. El País ran a story on infighting within the regional government's ruling pro-independence coalition. It reported that Vice President Oriol Junqueras, of the Catalan Republican Left party, refused President Carles Puigdemont's offer to coordinate the independence referendum scheduled for October 1. The report implied that party workers are afraid of recriminations from Madrid, which has promised to take legal action if Catalonia goes ahead with the referendum. El Mundo reported that administrative workers and bureaucrats "are rebelling against the illegal referendum." Right-leaning La Razón reported that Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez will appease Catalonia, promising "more money and constitutional reform" to head off the impending vote. ABC railed against the Madrid mayor's decision not to fly a banner commemorating the 20th anniversary of the murder of Miguel Ángel Blanco (a politician who belonged to the ruling conservative Popular Party) at the hands of the Basque separatist group ETA. It accused Mayor Manuela Carmena of the "absurd politicization of a true symbol for all victims of terrorism."

UK

The Times has a story on its front page about how the British Ambassador to the EU Sir Tim Barrow has yet to move to Brussels, leaving his family in London and taking the Eurostar himself back on the weekends. It also had a story on its front page about a House of Lords report that found that European naval missions in the Mediterranean to stop migrant arrivals may have led even more people to die at sea. The Daily Express led with Boris Johnson, who said on Tuesday that the EU can "go whistle" for the money it says the U.K. must pay to the bloc. The Daily Mail led with a story on MPs being bullied by the "hard left."

France

Le Monde had more on President Emmanuel Macron's decision to delay proposed tax cuts by a year to keep in line with the EU's budget deficit threshold of 3 percent of gross domestic product. They called the decision a "volte-face." Le Figaro led with the International Olympic Committee's decision to grant Paris and Los Angeles the right to host 2024 and 2028 Olympic games (though the committee has not ruled on which city will host which.) "The grand return of the Olympic games to Paris," the headline read. Libération's front page was about falling numbers of vaccinations.

Germany

The Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday on collective bargaining, by and large allowing a 2015 law that sought to limit smaller unions from paralyzing industry. Right-leaning Die Welt led with "Will there be fewer strikes in the future?" Left-leaning paper Tageszeitung did a for-and-against the ruling on its front page. Die Welt also published a editorial celebrating the European Court of Human Rights ruling that upheld the ban on full-face veils in Belgium. The title: "Burka is no human right." The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on the government's plans to prevent foreign takeovers of key German companies.

Eirik Hektoen

I suppose you are aware that by only reporting what the Spanish unionist newspapers write, you cannot hope to provide balanced coverage of the conflict over the Catalan independence referendum coming on 1 Oct. Incidentally, the journalistic standards of El Pais, El Munro, La Razon and ABC when it comes to anything related to Catalonia are abysmal.